Coppola's acting career, marked by frequent criticisms related to nepotism,[6][7][8] began while she was an infant, as she made background appearances in seven of her father's films. The best known of these early roles is her appearance in The Godfather as the infant Michael Francis Rizzi in the baptism scene.[9][10] Coppola returned to her father's trilogy in both the second and third Godfather films, playing an immigrant child in Part II and playing Michael Corleone's daughter in Part III, after the originally cast actress Winona Ryder discontinued her involvement with the film.[11][12] Coppola responded to a question about her role in The Godfather Part III in a 2013 interview:

Let's see. Did I not wanna do it? Um. I was game. I was trying different things. It sounded better than college. I didn't really think about the public aspect of it. That took me by surprise. The whole reaction. People felt very attached to the Godfather films. I grew up with them being no big deal. I mean, I understand they're great films but... I dunno. I'm not surprised. It makes sense that people would have an opinion about it but I got a lot of attention I wasn't expecting. I was going to art school anyway so I was able to get back to what I was doing. It was before the Internet so magazines would come out but then the next month they were gone. There wasn't even as much paparazzi around then.[11]

Frankenweenie (1984) was the first film that she performed in that was not associated with her father; however, it often goes unnoted due to her stage name "Domino", which she adopted at the time because she thought it was glamorous.[13] The 1989 short film, entitled Life Without Zoe, was released as part of a tripartite anthology film New York Stories, and was co-written by a teenage Coppola with her father, who also directed the film.[14]

After she was critically panned for her performance in The Godfather Part III, for which she was named "Worst Supporting Actress" and "Worst New Star" at the 1990 Golden Raspberry Awards, Coppola ended her acting career; although, she appeared in the 1992 independent film Inside Monkey Zetterland, as well as in the backgrounds of films by her friends and family; for example, she appeared as Saché in George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999.[11] She has since been quoted as saying that she was not hurt by the criticism from her role in The Godfather Part III, because she never especially wanted an acting career.[15]

Her second feature was Lost in Translation (2003). Coppola won the Academy Award for her original screenplay and three Golden Globe Awards including Best Picture Musical or Comedy. After Lina Wertmüller and Jane Campion, Coppola became the third female director to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing and the second to win the Original Screenplay award, after Campion in 1994 (Wertmüller was also nominated), thus making a pattern for the female directors to be nominated for both awards. Her win for best original screenplay in 2003 made her a third-generation Oscar winner. In 2004, Coppola was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[16]

Her fourth film was Somewhere (2010). The movie was filmed at Chateau Marmont. The plot focuses on a "bad boy" actor portrayed by Stephen Dorff who is forced to reevaluate his life when his daughter, played by Elle Fanning, arrives unexpectedly.[19] In November 2010, Coppola was interviewed by Joel Coen, who professed his admiration of Coppola's work, at the DGA screening of Somewhere in New York City.[20]

An announcement in mid-December 2013 stated that American Zoetrope had successfully attained the screen rights for the memoir Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father and that Coppola will adapt the book with Andrew Durham. Coppola will also produce the film with her brother Roman.[25]

In December 2008, Coppola's first commercial premiered during an episode of Gossip Girl. The advertisement which she directed for the Christian Dior fragrance Miss Dior Chérie which was shot in France with model Maryna Linchuk was very well received and continues to be popular on YouTube.[28]

In October 2014, Bill Murray announced on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show that he and Coppola were working on a Christmas special.[29] He stated that they were in the early stages of planning and no network was involved at the time. Later that same month, Coppola launched a series of Christmas ads for the clothing chain Gap.[30]

At the beginning of the 1990s, she was often featured in girl-oriented magazines like Seventeen and YM. In 1998, she cofounded the clothing line Milk Fed in Japan with friend Stephanie Hayman in cooperation with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon.

In 2002, fashion designer Marc Jacobs chose the actress/director to be the 'face' of his house's fragrance. The campaign involved photographs of her shot by photographer Juergen Teller in his signature over-exposed style.

Her nomination for Best Director made her the first American woman in history to be nominated in that category, and the third overall, after Lina Wertmüller and Jane Campion. In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow became the fourth woman to be nominated, and the first to win the award. Coppola, however, remains the youngest woman to be nominated in the Best Director category.

Her win for Best Original Screenplay resulted in her family becoming the second three-generation Oscar winning family, her grandfather Carmine Coppola and her father Francis Ford Coppola having previously won Oscars. The first family to achieve this feat was the Huston family: Walter, John, and Anjelica.

For her work on Lost in Translation, Coppola also won a Best Screenplay Golden Globe and received a BAFTA nomination.

In 1999, Coppola married director Spike Jonze, whom she had first met in 1992, and they divorced in 2003. It is widely believed that a minor character in Lost In Translation is based on Jonze, as Coppola stated after the film's release, "There are elements of Spike there, elements of experiences."[33][34] In an official statement, Coppola's publicist explained that the divorce decision was reached "with sadness."

Coppola lives in Paris, France with her second husband Thomas Mars (lead singer of the French band Phoenix), and has described her love for the city and her favorite places there: "The Palais-Royal, the Tuileries Garden, the Musée d'Orsay. You can tell I love the city, right? It's a filmmaker's dream there; the colors are beautiful!"[35] On November 28, 2006, Coppola gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Romy, who is named in honor of her brother Roman.[36]

Coppola first met Mars while producing the soundtrack to The Virgin Suicides.[37] They have since collaborated on Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette and Somewhere.[38]

A second daughter named Cosima was born to Coppola and Mars in New York City, U.S. in May 2010.[39] Coppola and Mars were married on August 27, 2011 at her family's villa ex "Palazzo Margherita"[40] in Bernalda, Italy.[41]

^Chen, Eva (March 2009). "Beauty Blogger". Teen Vogue. p. 113. Though this explanation has often baffled journalists, it is generally believed that Coppola does, in fact, live in Paris, despite her superficial responses to questions about the city.